By University Communication and Marketing - Published: 02/05/2012Posted in: Coming Up

What: Sarah Ruhl’s adult comedy In the Next Room (or The Vibrator Play), a finalist for the 2010 Pulitzer Prize

When: 8 p.m., Feb. 10-11 and 16-18; 2 p.m., Feb. 12 and 19

Where: E.C. Mabie Theatre of the University of Iowa Theatre Building

Tickets: $17; ($12 for senior citizens; $10 for youth; $5 for UI students) and are available through the Hancher Box Office, 319-335-1160 or 800-426-2437, www.hancher.uiowa.edu. Any remaining tickets will be available at the Theatre Building box office an hour before curtain time.

So what’s the story here?: The play is based on the actual history of the vibrator, which was not only one of the first small appliances to be electrified, but was used by 19th-century physicians as a treatment for women diagnosed with “hysteria.” Women of means and social status in Victorian America would visit the offices of medical professionals to receive “gynecologic massage” until a “paroxysm” was achieved.